When in Rome

Shannon Wood
Feb 19, 2015
5 min read

Today we left bright an early for Rome. The school was taking us for the weekend. The College of Communication and Information left on Thursday, and all of the other students arrived on Friday. We all had to meet at the train station at 7:55AM. Let me just say this trip was exhausting! Our house is a half an hour walk from the train station. This means I had to be up about six to have enough time to eat, get out the door, and make sure everyone was with me!

When we arrived at the train station a few of us grabbed a cup of coffee. The coffee was much needed. By 8:30 we were on our way to Rome. The train was about an hour and a half. Once we arrived in Rome, we then took a coach bus to our hotel. Our hotel was called Hotel Navona. It had a great location. It was close to Piazza Novana, the Pantheon, and Campo Di Fiore. After arriving at the hotel, we took a little bit of time to settle in before our walking tour. Our walking tour included seeing the ruins close to our hotel. These ruins were the largest cat ruins in Rome. We passed by the Roam Forum. We over looked it, and later would get the chance to go in it. Our professor was then nice enough to buy us all cappuccinos. We walked around some more. After we grabbed some lunch before heading off to Cinecitta. We were all standing in a big group I would say about 300 feet from the bus stop. All of a sudden my professor starts sprinting. He goes this is our bus! Thank for the warning. So here we all are sprinting across the piazza to catch this bus. We made it! The bus was packed. We were all like little sardines. After we got on the train station, it isn’t as easy as London, plus it was much more crowded.

Finally, we arrived at Cinecitta. Cinecitta are the Hollywood studios of Italy. No we didn’t get to see any famous stars, but it was still very cool. We got to go inside a theater. Also, we got to see and outside set. I will blow your mind by saying the outside set is made entirely of Styrofoam. I would have never known. It was such a cool experience. After, we had a meeting with an Italian set designer. It was amazing to see all the work he had done. It was all by hand too. Nothing was computerized.

After, we headed to do a walking tour again. We went to the Garden of Oranges. This garden was so beautiful. It over looked the entire city. Plus we had made it there for sunset, which made it much more of an amazing view. Finally, we walked through the Jewish Ghetto before arriving to dinner. We at dinner in a town called Trastevere. This is where all the young people go. It was a cute little place. We had a three-course meal. It was phenomenal. Finally, we headed back to the hotel to get some rest. This was only day one…

On day two we were up early again. We ate breakfast at the hotel. They had wonderful croissants. After eating we headed on another walking tour. This time the tour went to a local market in Campo Di Fiore. Then we headed to Piazza Novana. The weather was beautiful all day. After our morning tour we met the other students, who had just arrived. They quickly settled in, and then we were off to the Pantheon. We spent the morning visiting and learning all the history about the pantheon. Did you know there used to be five steps and now there is only one? Plus it used to be a temple for worship. Also, there is an eye at the top. It is amazing to see it actually rain inside the building. We saw it rain on our Sunday morning tour. After the Pantheon we headed to the coliseum. This was the highlight of my day! My pictures do not do justice to what it actually looks like. We spent a lot of out time just walking around and admiring the view. It was very crowded. My favorite part is actually the outside of the structure. It is just so beautiful. Afterwards, we had a quick lunch break before heading into the Roman Forum.

The Roman Forum was amazing to walk around in. I wish I could have seen it when all the buildings were intact. It was an amazing opportunity to get to learn so much about it. We walked all over. Finally, we ended on the platform that overlooks the entire forum, plus you can see the coliseum from here. It was a beautiful view. There was a seagull up there who was the highlight of the day. I took some pretty cool pictures of the seagull. After we just walked around Rome and explored. A bunch of us headed to Campo Di Fiore for a group dinner. It was very good. After we headed for a bar called Scholars, an Irish Pub, for a quick drink before calling it a night.

The next morning we spent the entire day in the Vatican City. We toured inside the city and the museum. We got to see amazing artwork. My favorite part was looking at the ceilings the artwork was so beautifully done. Today is the day we also got to go in the Sistine Chapel. It was so beautiful. Michelangelo did an amazing job. It is just breathtaking. After we went to St. Peters Basilica. This church was just as amazing. We explored the different sculptures and really just got to take in all the beauty. The pope was in town however we did not get to see him. The school packed out schedule with way too much to do. The rest of our day included eating lunch in the Vatican City and exploring. For dinner a bunch of us headed to Trastevere. Oh I forgot to mention Rome had the best Gelato! The oreo gelato there was so so so heavenly! We ate so much of it. Anyways, our night ended with visiting some bars for a couple drinks. We visited The Drunken Ship, which was way too much of an American Place for me and Sloppy Sams.

The final day in Rome was just as busy as all the others. We started with a great breakfast. Then we went on a walking tour. We went past the Pantheon again, on our way to the Trevi fountain. The Trevi fountain is still under construction. So unfortunately my pictures aren’t the best. However, we still got to throw our coins in, even if it was in scaffolding. After we continued our tour to the Borgesa. This is where we saw many sculptures and works from famous artists. I enjoyed looking at all the different works of art. Our day ended with lunch at a local place. The new headed back to the hotel to pick up our stuff for the train. Finally, we were headed back to Florence.